The impending teacher shortage is the most critical education issue we will face in the next decade.

Honest discussions - even and perhaps especially on topics about which we disagree - can help us resist hypocrisy and arrogance. They can also help us live up to the basic ideals, such as liberty and justice for all, on which our country was founded.

What drew me to both study and activism was the formative experience of the civil rights movement.

Congress needs strong parties, but it also needs the capacity to deal with budget and entitlement challenges that are likely beyond the reach of pure partisan exertion.

I want clean water and clean air and conservation... that's not what extreme environmentalists are all about. For them, it is a religion. They believe in trees and animals, not God.

In previous generations, there was purpose; you had to die, but there was God, and literature and culture would go on. Now, there is no God, and our species is imminently doomed, so there is no purpose. We get up, raise families, have bank accounts, fix our teeth and everything else. But really, there is utterly no purpose except to be alive.

What women really want is opportunity and the freedom to love and accept all aspects of womanhood - the intellectual, spiritual, professional, biological and relational dimensions of who we are.

What can I say about 'The Lost Boys'? Oh my God: I love it; I hate it; I'm scared of it. I had a massive crush on them all when I was young. And I wanted to be a vampire. It's so stylized; it's the type of film I grew up on. To me, it's always at the top.